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Friday, May 22, 2020

Touted as the “this year’s most insane midnighter” by Chattanooga Film Festival for their virtual edition, you only have to look to the trailerSkull: The Mask to see it more than earns that distinction. An insanely gory, ambitious effort hailing from Brazil, Skull sets a bloodthirsty supernatural killer loose in São Paulo. That would be enough to fill a feature-length film slasher, but the increasingly complicated plot threads bring multiple tones and flavors of horror into the mix. A simple slasher with enough viscera and organ meat to appease gorehounds gets bogged down under the weight of its massive ambition.

Opening with a 1944 set scene deep in the Amazon, Nazis experiment with a strange artifact. It’s a skull mask, or the Mask of Anhangá, the executioner of pre-Columbian God, Tahawantinsupay. Anhangá’s sole purpose is to commit visceral sacrifices for his god, and the bloodier, the better. In other words, he’s a nearly unstoppable killing machine. The Nazi experiment fails, though, and the mask gets buried until present-day archeologists discover it. The mask finds a human host and embarks on an all-new murder spree across the city.

That’s all well and good, but this central plot thread is intercut with the noir-ish storyline of Beatriz Obdias (Natallia Rodrigues), a Detective with a shady past working on a missing children’s case. As she’s drawn into the central story, the film establishes many other characters- from a sleazy businessman to a crook looking to upkeep his family’s honor- all with various stakes in getting their hands on that mask. The further into the story we get, the more convoluted everything becomes. There’s a high probability you’ll forget about a character’s existence entirely before they pop up again.

The ambition that writers/directors Armando Fonseca and Kapel Furman demonstrate here is impressive, especially given the clear budget constraints. They’re attempting to marry actual ancient mythology with modern socially conscious themes. It’s juggled with a wide array of characters across the moral spectrum, and multiple set pieces and locations. Skull is a part noir, part action drama, and part ultra-violent slasher, causing a little bit of whiplash as it toggles between tone. It’s a lot to process.

Luckily, there’s Anhangá, one blood-drenched beast of a killer. The remarkably gruesome practical effects, enhanced by slurpy sound effects, brings the balls-to-the-wall gory fun. None of the film’s flaws matter much when Anhangá is on screen, rampaging his way through the city, ripping bodies apart in the most grisly and destructive way possible. If you want unapologetic, creative kills with a tentacled masked maniac, this more than delivers. When the focus shifts to the other key plays, the energy Anhangá brings deflates noticeably.

Overall, enjoyment of Skull: The Mask depends on your approach from the start. If you sign up merely looking to satiate your appetite for an insanely gory slasher, well, Anhangá has you covered. Beyond that, though, Skull is marred by a convoluted script that needed significant trimming. Fonseca and Furman seem to be aiming for Brazil’s current political climate, perhaps making a statement about how forgetting the past can be catastrophically damaging. The messaging gets lost in the scattered shuffle and technical limitations. Skullcontains a gloriously carnage-fueled horror movie nestled deep within a messy web of entangled plot threads. A lot of it doesn’t work, but it’s hard to be too upset about a film that brings an insane amount of gore and intriguing new monster mythology.

Given that Netflix really is the master of their own data, how many times a viewer streams The Ridiculous 6, or what films don't get watched all the way straight through, or how many times someone watches an episode of Bill Nye Saves the World, it was easy for them to come up with the list based on just one percentage: 70 percent.

We don't see that kind of horror film anymore, honestly. Or horror TV show. And the fact is when you look at the overall theme of Stranger Things, you know that while there is a healthy smattering of bad language to boot and some fierce content of the scary kind, overall you have to agree: it's really not that inappropriate at all.

The Faculty took the idea of the invasion and simply localized it. Instead of a planet -- everyone is in danger, no discrimination, nothing to signify what these aliens want or are looking for -- the alien(s) instead focused their effect on just those few teachers. Now there's an interesting high concept.

And in all its basic-ness, you'd be shocked to realize that it's not just a linear-type film with one main idea. There are actually a ton of deep meanings behind all of the frames, the shots, the sequences, the scenes. With obviously the underlying principle, the whole point of it: meaningless sex is bad!

And there was already a feature film released, based on it. However, lackluster it was. Although click here and you'll get an inside look of just how actually creepy the real forest is! Sometimes real is better than imaginary or anything Hollywood can cook up for you.

We're sure many, many, many, many, many people around the world are either dealing with a new kind of respiratory infection called CORONAVIRUS (why did they have to name it after a beer?) or cooped up in a house with nothing to do, due to the epic pandemic.

Not a documentary. We need to clarify that. For those sadly confused at this headline, we apologize, but it is what it is: Fox has ordered an untitled pilot for a new TV series that will essentially recreate "THE GOONIES," shot to shot! Hooooooold up.... We're not complaining, honestly.

Potentially very good. See below. It turns out that the announcement is official according to the Carrie Bradshaw of the Sanderson bunch (Sarah Jessica Parker): there will be a "Hocus Pocus" sequel, premiering on Disney+.